Circuit boards are widely used in the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment. Such circuit boards are prepared with printed wiring that is used to interconnect electrical components located on the circuit boards, such as dual-in-line devices. Components may be inserted into plated-through holes of the circuit boards and affixed thereto to form connections with the printed wiring to create a composite circuit used in the operation of the equipment. In another variation, components may be plugged into a socket that is located on the circuit board and affixed to the printed-wiring thereof.
Component insertion machines are used in the manufacture of the circuit boards to automatically insert components previously loaded into component magazines onto the circuit boards. Typical component insertion machines usually have a number of component magazines installed thereon from which components are selected and inserted into a circuit board in accordance with programmed instructions controlling the operation of the component insertion machine. In the operation of the component insertion machine, the machine automatically checks the presence of components in a component magazine. When a component magagzine is empty, the operator removes the empty component magazine and replaces it with another. A problem arises in the loading procedure in that component magazines are open at both ends to facilitate the loading of the components into the component magazines and to enable ones of the loaded components to be selected by the component insertion machine. Thus, the operator is required to hold a finger over an open end while the component magazine is being loaded into the component insertion machine to prevent components from falling out of the component magazines. Another problem arises in that it is desirable to reduce machine set-up time by loading multiple component magazines into loading apparatus at a single station and install the multiple component magazies loaded into the loading apparatus in a single operation into a component insertion machine.